'Sell the building! Sell the building!'

At the close of Monday's special town meeting, the Naquag School gym rang with the chant, "Sell the building! Sell the building!"

It was the cry of some 80 voters who had almost unanimously rejected any further expenditure on the Primary Building.

Selectmen had placed an article on the town meeting warrant seeking to hire an architectural firm for $37,000 in order to get some initial floor plans and design development for the building, as well as a projected estimate of the final cost of remodeling it for office and meeting space.

Selectmen had entered the article as a nonbinding vote because approval was already given to spend the money, selectman Douglas Briggs said.

A presentation by selectman Sheila Dibb outlined the expenditure the town had already made on the building. In 2004, the town appropriated $740,000 for the project. To date, $600,000 has been spent to remove asbestos and mold, install new windows, plumbing and heating, and ventilation, she said.

"Tonight we decide, with $600,000 already spent and a clean building shell, do we spend $37,000 to finish the building or do we give up," Dibb said.

"We're looking for a public will to finish the building or not," selectmen Chairman Joseph Becker said. "Even though this is nonbinding, if the majority of you say 'no,' I will not vote to continue renovating this building. I'll vote to sell it or tear it down and turn it into a parking lot."

Don D'Auteuil, 1 Maple Ave, agreed that the town had a serious shortage of office space. The Planning Board, the Building Department, Conservation Commission and Historical Commission all had a desperate need of rooms large enough to hold meetings, he said.

Feelings ran high against the building, however, and the possibility that the town could be drawn into spending well over a $1 million for the finished product.

Louis J. Cornacchioli, 18 Blueberry Lane, said he was opposed to spending any more money on the building.

"We have enough building loans out as it is right now. We should try to sell it and if we can't we should try to rent it. If we can't do that, we should let it sit there," he said.

Finance Committee member Barbara Sbrogna recommended against any immediate expenditure.

"There are an awful lot of unanswered questions," she said. "I recommend we get a small committee to figure out how we can use the building using the money we have left to spend."

With the defeat of the article, Dibb said the town would have to figure out whether to sell or rent the building.

"I don't want to knock it down," she said. "I hope we think outside the box. I hope we get to offer it to a charter school or do something creative with it."

Also last night, voters approved an updated zoning map that was based on zoning-related town meeting votes going back to 1961 and was created using computerized geographic technology.

Voters approved $44,351 to buy back sick leave from retired teachers who had worked under the Rutland Teachers Association, before the town became part of the Wachusett School District. It was a contractual obligation, Briggs explained. Rutland was the only town in the region that had a sick-leave buyback.

Voters also agreed to spend $7,000 to pay for a job classification study for town employees, something that had not been done since 1996, Becker said. The town has hired MMA Consulting Group to do the study.

"We're looking to make sure that we have the hourly rates where they should be within the four steps of employee progression," Becker said. "Given budget constraints, we may not have the money to upgrade, anyhow."

An article seeking $10,000 for a consultant to give advice on requirements after capping the Charnock Hill Rd landfill was also approved. Board of Health chair Karin Leonard said the town had agreed 30 years ago to do testing of the capped landfill, "but we didn't do it for 20 years." The town had five to 10 wells that monitor water or gas and those need to be checked, she said. The health board is looking for grant, however.

"If we don't do this, the DEP could end up running your Board of Health, besides giving us a hefty fine," Leonard said.

No action was taken on an article that proposed tightening the dog laws. Articles that sought additional funding for fuel for town buildings also had no action taken by voters. At the end of the meeting, there was $51,000 left in the Free Cash account, selectmen chairman Joseph Becker said.

In other business, voters agreed to spend: • $9,341 for painting reflectorized highway markers • $9,220 to clean catch basins and drop-ins • $6,746 for six computer workstations for town offices • $4,352 to fund a deficit in the Quinn Bill account which pays for police officer education • $3,850 for the Veterans' Benefits account • $1,280 for programmable thermostats for town buildings